Star Conservatory Restaurant

I had great hopes for this location as I heard it was now run but another restaurant I liked, I was very disappointed across the board, and will not return.

We were here Sunday for lunch. It was very loud — not recommended for someone with hearing aids. My grandmother said she couldn’t hear any of the conversation at the table.
I had heard great things about the Star Grill so I had some expectations going in for the meal. I had the hemp seed burger — nothing to write home about it was overpowered by the chili sauce.
Also had the hummas trio appetizer — this was very good but had to ask for additional bagette chips as it wasn’t served with enough.
When we asked to wrap up some of the left overs, we got a very disapproving look from the young waitress.
Won’t be going back.

I have never been to the Conservatory; I know that a lot of people reserve this venue for weddings pictures in case of a rainy day so I was expecting a really pretty venue. I imagined the dining area to be similar to the old Tavern in the Park/​Terrace Fifty-​Five in the Pavaillion (which is just down the street)…light and airy surrounded by glass and pretty white lights. Nope… this place looked like a bad hall with a lot of shrubery… imagine dining at Shelmerdines.
I attended this venue for a Christmas party for about 150+ people. My first issue is the lack of space to hang coats. It’s December in Winnipeg so everyone has a bulky jacket but this place had 2 permanent jacket hangers plus one movable metal one. That was it! You had to do your best to shove your jacket into the massive mound that would explode at any moment. Why not buy a few more portable hangers to accommodate the venue size?
The foyer was decorated in probably one of the ugliest Christmas scenes I have ever seen. They tried to recreate a Christmas living room scene — you know with a chair by a fireplace and Christmas tree. Would’ve been a nice scene if you could sit in the chairs… the best part was how they had a piece of paper taped to the chair that read «decoration only — please do not sit down». LOL. The fireplace was a total fake… but in the sense that it reminded me of my elementary school days where our Christmas concerts had these fake fireplaces that the kids painted in art class to use as a prop. That’s what this fireplace looked like! It was quite amusing. The Christmas tree wasn’t decorated, only lit but it wasn’t covered in enough lights so there were a lot of space throughout the tree. It’s not the prettiest place to take pictures in front of. They need to take a look at how the Fairmont, Fort Garry Hotel and maybe even a few malls to see how a proper Christmas scene should look like. This one just looked cheap.
Moving into the dining room… it’s an odd shape place. It’s a rectangular room with long tables that seat 10 people per table which surround the perimeter. There’s also an inner part of the hall that sinks down to the centre part of the room where a few more tables are set inside surrounded by a ton of pine trees and garlands covered in a mish mash of different coloured LED lights. First of all, this set up of shrubs surrounding the inner part of the dining room obstructs the view of the room. You can barely see across the room. I guess it gives a more intimate feeling at your table but it feels very secluded at a party of this size. Next, the tables are so small and tight for 10 people to dine at comfortably. Also, it’s very difficult to get around the room as there’s really only enough room for one person to pass through at a time. It makes it difficult to walk around and socialize.
Next, the mish mash of LED lights makes the place look cheap and as if no one put any thought to the décor (see attached picture). I like coloured lights but in a dining hall like this, I think warm white mini lights are always the way to go as it makes a place look more sleek and elegant.
Next, the food was catered by the Star Grill. Now, I’ve never eaten at this establishment but it’s a casual family restaurant so I didn’t have high hopes for a good meal. Catering by default is a difficult event to produce good high quality food for large crowds and even the best venues fail at the best of times. The food was so-so…it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great. We had a buffet dinner where the servers portioned the servings for the crowd. The green beans were overcooked, the arctic char was good, the roast beef was overcooked and tough, turkey was not too dry but didn’t have much flavour even with the gravy. The desserts were dry and not that great.
Service was very casual at best… first of all, no bread plates even though there were bread on the table before the dinner. Wines were at the table but no one came around to serve… not sure if they were suppose to but that should happen at least for the first pour. Water was hard to come by as no one really came around to check up on that. And the bar served flat coke (yuck) in a pre-​poured pitcher… how long did they pour that stuff out beforehand??? I took one sip of my rye and coke and left it behind. That’s terrible!
As for the conservatory itself, it was closed off later in the evening which was disappointing when we walked through there. You could barely see anything as the lights were out only lit by strings of LED lights. It looks like a nice place to walk through — why not keep it open all night long for people who want to get away from the party for a little bit?
All in all, this was a disappointing venue for a party. I think there are many venues around the city that would serve to be a better place if you have a large party. I would also recommend using a different caterer and have them set up the room in a much more social and conducive manner.

We tried to eat here this summer. Operative word being *tried*.
My mum and I wanted to take a walk through the conservatory but we needed a bite to eat before hand. Since the conservatory wasn’t going to be open for too much longer, we figured we could grab a quick sandwich in the conservatory restaurant and then be on our way.
We were seated fairly quickly and that was the high point of our visit there. After the hostess seated us, no one ever came to see us again. I don’t know if our table was in between two servers sections and not assigned to anyone or what, but we sat there for 15 minutes waiting for someone to come by with water and take our order.
Servers kept walking by and going to other tables but it really felt like we were invisible. Even though we clearly hadn’t been helped, no one stopped to see if we needed anything or sent anyone over.
I finally got up and told someone that we hadn’t been attended to and sat back down. Five minutes later we still hadn’t got any service so we got up and left.
Probably the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had, and what’s more, all the waiting around and then having to drive out of the park to find food meant we missed the conservatory that day. Not impressed.

its just kind of depressing its so small looks and cluttered there’s like three rooms and usually there set up some stupid displays. recently the one room was filled with a dozen cheap umbrellas (i don’t know why nor do i care). the restaurant is the star conservatory which is an offshoot of the star grill on portage, the food isn’t half bad although I’ve only gone for breakfast and they have a very small selection (3 0r 4 things maybe), the service is pretty bad and mostly rude the couple times I’ve gone. when i went in for a coffee and a muffin and had to wait 20min to get served (and it wasn’t full plus they had more then enough severs) then another 10 minutes for the coffee and muffin. i think the service was so bad because i had been biking and wasnt well dressed maybe but if they wanted me out they would of just served me quickly and id be gone.
all in all they have good food bad serves and think themselves way more then they actually are i’d pass on this place.